Learning a second language can have many benefits beyond simply the ability to speak another language. These benefits can impact your social life, your self-confidence and your communication skills in your native language. Importantly, there are also health benefits that can help you live a longer, more fulfilling life. This isn’t to mention the potential for opportunities to be opened to you, that may not have been possible were it not for your second language. Future employers may look more favourably on you due to your ability to speak a second language, while your options for travel and living area may also be expanded.

You will be hard-pressed to find anyone who says they regret learning a second language. There will be some who only had language classes in school and thought they were a waste of time. If they didn’t take their learning beyond the school classroom, their opinion of language learning may not carry much weight.

For learners who took their language learning beyond school classes, or perhaps started learning after school, there isn’t much to regret. The largest regret I hear is from people telling me that they wanted to learn a different second language. Of course, it’s never too late to learn a new language, and after learning one language, learning the next becomes easier.

Learning a second language is never useless. That’s because there are so many benefits, even if you don’t live in the country or use it on a daily basis, you can still reap the rewards of your hard work.

Below are some further benefits to learning a second language, and this list is by no means exhausted. You will find that there are surprising added bonuses to learning the language beyond the expected ability to speak to more people.

Growth In Personal Skills

One of the largest, and most obvious, changes you will see when you start learning a new language, is growth in your own personal skills. Learning a second language results in a greater understanding of different people and cultures and a greater acceptance of different ways of life. This is an incredible benefit of language learning, which is often unacknowledged. Speakers of more than one language are more likely to be open to differences in people, which is a great benefit in any social situation. This means better collaboration in workplaces, friendship groups that contain people from other cultures, and a general openness to different ways of life.

If nobody learnt a second language, countries worldwide would be very much like silos, close together but very separate. Nobody would understand what people in another country are saying, but more importantly, there would be so many miscommunications and misunderstandings. Learning a language is more than just learning words. It is learning a different way of thinking and living.

Increased Social Skills

Your social skills are sure to grow throughout your language-learning journey. You will meet new people and interact with them in ways you may not have done while using the English language. For example, often when speaking to someone in your second language, you will try and use more simple language and try to get to know the person you are communicating with. This may mean asking them questions that you wouldn’t in your native language.

This growth in social skills will have an amazing impact on your life as a whole because improved social skills lead to improved self-confidence and as a result, improved relationships.

Learning another language forces us to socialize, and as a result, our own social skills are also practised and improved.

Often in a language class, you will learn a new phrase or grammatical concept and you’ll be asked to practice this with a partner. There are not many classes, besides language classes, where you are learning the content while also having a conversation with someone. Often these conversations are asking questions about the other person, helping to form new friendships and connections in the class.

By doing this you are not only practising the language, but you are also improving your social skills and ability to have conversations. You are also getting practice at answering the same questions yourself which will also make you a better conversationalist. You may even have a larger range of questions you can ask in conversation, thanks to your language classes.

This skill will transfer into the rest of your life; no matter what language you speak, your social skills will help you engage and connect with people.

One of the most enjoyable things you can do in language classes is to create a version of yourself, limited only by your vocabulary. Class is the best opportunity to practice new vocabulary; pronunciation, and grammar, so try to use as much of your new vocabulary as possible. For example, if you were discussing your likes and dislikes, you have two options. You can be truthful and try to say exactly what you do and don’t like, or you can try experimenting with vocabulary that you know. Perhaps you want to practice saying ‘turtle’ in your target language because it is difficult to pronounce. This is a great time to try it! It’s also a great opportunity to try making jokes and having fun while learning.

Increased Self-Confidence

A side benefit of improved social skills is increased self-confidence. You will find that if you practice having a conversation in a foreign language with another person, even if you did make mistakes, your confidence will skyrocket. You will quickly find that despite any mistakes you make, the other person will be encouraging for you. This is also the case for native speakers who hear someone speaking their language, even if some words are said wrong.

You are your own worst critic. Language learning helps you realise this and to take yourself a little less seriously. This is a good thing!

If you are learning a second language in the classroom, it is highly likely that you’ll be required to perform oral presentations in front of the class. At the start, you will all probably be quite nervous about this, but as time goes on you start to realize a few things: your classmates are all feeling as nervous as you, everybody makes mistakes and that’s okay, and public speaking isn’t as bad as it seems.

After you’ve completed this class, any other public speaking will be much easier for you. While your friends might be moaning about having to do a presentation, you’ll be able to face it with confidence! This also makes any presentation in your native language seem like a breeze because you only need to think about what you want to say, and not how to say it!

Opportunity To Live Internationally

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to experience a year overseas? There are incredible opportunities to do this while studying, but what about after that?

What if you had a job skill that was easily transferable to another country and you wanted to see what it would be like to live somewhere else for a while? You could go to, say, Canada or Australia but this wouldn’t exactly be a mind-blowing shift in culture and won’t feel as ‘exotic’ as a non-English speaking country may seem.

We have previously discussed the benefits of learning German for career progression. Many of these benefits will obviously carry over into most languages that you could learn. As you can imagine, some languages, for example, classical Greek, will probably be less useful are you in the office than perhaps Spanish or Mandarin.

Your options for places to go are less limited if you speak more than one language.

This would not have to be a forever move, but if you’ve ever felt the urge or the inkling that this is something you might want to do, I would recommend that you learn a language. This would give a broader range of options so that you can fully experience what life is like in a totally foreign part of the world.

Enlarge Your World View

If language is the way that we communicate and make sense of things, it follows that having a second language will help in this understanding. This allows us to see that our way of thinking may not be the only answer to something and that there is more than one solution to a problem.

By learning a second language, we open ourselves to a different way of thinking and become more open to the idea that there is more than one way to live, think and, communicate.

An added side bonus of this is that culture shock will be less of a problem as compared to speakers of only one language. Often speakers of one language are unprepared for the reality that people live their entire lives in a completely different way, and in a completely different language, which can lead to culture shock. Luckily, you have gotten ahead of that by learning a new language.

By speaking a second language, you are already aware of this concept but more importantly, you are much more likely to be open to a different way of life. The human reaction to anyone thinking or doing differently from us is wrong. Instead of this reaction, however, bilingual speakers are more open to understanding why and how differences exist, and to seeing if there are aspects that can be taken on board to improve one’s own life.

Health Benefits Of Language Learning

Alongside the benefits with regard to social career aspects of life, learning multiple languages also has health benefits for good measure.

As we get older both our bodies and our minds start to deteriorate. It is easy to forget that while we need to keep our bodies fit and healthy to prevent deterioration until later in life, our mind has the same needs. We need to make sure that our minds, as well as our bodies, stay active and engaged throughout our lifetime. One great way we can keep our minds active is by learning something new, for example, a language.

Learning languages can help delay the onset of some conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. This has been shown through studies for both of these conditions. Bilingual speakers have been shown to have a slower deterioration of the brain as compared to monolingual speakers. This can show itself in a delayed onset of conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. In the case of dementia, language learning can delay its onset by up to almost 5 years!

Another benefit to learning languages is that you are actively trying to remember and retain lots of new information. Learning two sets of vocabulary and grammatical rules is no easy feat. This means that your brain is having to work quite hard, which helps keep it active.

In addition to increasing your memory, having your brain focus on such a difficult task can help in other ways. You will have less memory space in your brain to think about things in life that are causing you stress and anxiety. Reducing these things in your life comes with its own range of health benefits.

All in all, there are many benefits to learning a second language, some of which may be a surprise to you. Just remember, you are never too old to start learning a new language! If you aren’t sure which language you should try, I recommend having a look at languages available on Duolingo to test the water and see which language you feel you want to get serious learning.